Arabian Post Staff -Dubai The United States and Iran have halted attacks for a second consecutive night, creating a fragile opening for diplomacy after nearly two weeks of escalating strikes around the Strait of Hormuz. US forces carried out no reported air strikes against Iran during the weekend after 13 straight nights of operations aimed at missile sites, coastal positions and other capabilities used to threaten commercial […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai A viral Instagram post attributed to Archita Sachin Rahar, daughter of BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi, has triggered anger within the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Odisha unit after appearing to celebrate Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation as Union Education Minister. Screenshots circulating across social media show an Instagram story featuring Pradhan against the national flag and carrying the words: “Dharmendra Pradhan resigns amid massive student protests over […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Abu Dhabi Global Market has recognised Tether Gold as an Accepted Spot Commodity, opening the way for licensed financial firms in the centre to provide regulated services involving the gold-backed digital token. The designation covers XAU₮, issued by Tether through its commodities business. Each full token represents ownership of one fine troy ounce of physical gold allocated from a London Good Delivery bar […]
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he is prepared to challenge US President Donald Trump publicly when Britain’s national interest requires it, setting out a more assertive approach to the country’s most important defence and diplomatic partnership. Burnham made the commitment during his first major broadcast interview since succeeding Keir Starmer, while stressing that disagreement would not prevent close cooperation between London and Washington. He described his […]
Europe’s tougher digital-asset rules are creating conditions for a new wave of mergers and acquisitions as crypto companies seek licences, compliance expertise, customers and stronger links with established banks. The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, known as MiCA, entered a decisive phase on July 1, when the final transitional arrangements expired across the bloc. Crypto exchanges, custodians and other service providers can no longer rely on […]
Supporters of the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party danced, raised slogans and waved national flags at their protest site at Jantar Mantar after Pradhan announced his departure. The group declared that “democracy wins” and called off its agitation after the government accepted key demands, including reforms to examination administration.
Pradhan’s resignation marked the first major concession by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government during weeks of demonstrations, sit-ins and hunger strikes. The protests began over allegations that papers for highly competitive entrance examinations had been leaked, affecting the prospects of millions of students seeking admission to colleges and professional courses.
The movement had insisted that administrative reforms alone would not be sufficient without ministerial responsibility. Protest organisers said Pradhan had to step down because the repeated breaches had damaged public trust and imposed financial and emotional costs on candidates and their families.
Modi announced on Sunday that a high-powered task force headed by technology entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani would overhaul the examination system. The panel will examine the use of technology, security procedures, logistics and administrative safeguards to make tests more transparent and resistant to manipulation.
The government also plans to introduce legislation in Parliament to strengthen penalties for those involved in leaking examination papers. The proposed measures are expected to target organised networks that obtain, distribute or sell question papers before examinations.
Nilekani, a co-founder of Infosys who played a central role in developing the Aadhaar digital identity programme, will lead a six-member group that includes specialists in technology, intelligence, space research, education and public administration. The selection signals an effort to combine digital safeguards with tighter physical security at printing centres, storage facilities and examination venues.
The concessions offered to protest leaders include the withdrawal of police cases filed against demonstrators and compensation for families of students who died by suicide following examination-related distress. Authorities also agreed to consider mechanisms for faster investigation and prosecution of paper-leak cases.
The agitation intensified after tens of thousands of young people marched towards Parliament in New Delhi. Police used batons and tear gas to stop protesters, leading to injuries and widespread criticism of the handling of the demonstration.
Security restrictions affected central parts of the capital, with several metro stations temporarily closed. Demonstrations spread to Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Goa, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram, Jammu and Ahmedabad, turning a dispute over examination integrity into a national political challenge.
Opposition lawmakers joined the protesters’ demand for Pradhan’s resignation and repeatedly disrupted proceedings in Parliament. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and several other opposition figures were detained during a demonstration near the prime minister’s residence and released later.
Pradhan, 57, had served in the Union government since Modi took office in 2014 and held several senior portfolios. His political standing within the Bharatiya Janata Party initially encouraged expectations that the government would defend him, even as pressure mounted from students, parents, activists and opposition parties.
The Cockroach Janta Party began as an online satire before developing into an organised protest platform. Its irreverent slogans, artwork and social-media campaigns attracted students, young professionals and families who felt established organisations had failed to articulate their concerns.
Environmental activist Sonam Wangchuk strengthened the campaign by beginning a hunger strike on June 28. He was later moved to hospital after his health deteriorated and demanded guarantees that participants would not face retaliatory legal action.
The examination controversy expanded into a wider debate over unemployment, limited economic opportunities and the intense competition surrounding public-sector recruitment and professional education. Young candidates often spend several years and substantial family savings preparing for entrance tests, making cancellations or leaks especially damaging.
About two million candidates were affected by the medical entrance examination at the centre of the latest dispute. Protesters argued that recurring allegations of compromised papers showed that existing safeguards had failed to keep pace with organised criminal groups and digital methods of distribution.
Infostealer malware is giving ransomware operators a faster route into corporate networks by supplying stolen passwords, browser cookies and authentication tokens that can defeat conventional identity controls. The growing trade in “stealer logs” has turned infections on individual computers into a dependable source of access for organised cybercrime groups. Criminals can search the harvested data for corporate email addresses, virtual private network credentials, cloud accounts, remote desktop […]
A weakness in Anthropic’s Claude Code can allow a repository to send the contents of files outside its project directory to an external server when a developer starts the coding assistant, security researchers have disclosed. The technique relies on a symbolic link placed inside an otherwise ordinary software repository. When combined with instructions in a CLAUDE. md file, the link can direct Claude Code towards sensitive material […]
AMD has outlined a long-term server processor roadmap extending to 2030, placing its Florence and Ravenna chips at the centre of a broader push to capture demand from artificial intelligence, cloud computing and high-performance data centres. Florence, based on the planned Zen 7 architecture, is targeted for 2028 as part of AMD’s seventh-generation EPYC processor family. It is scheduled to be followed by Ravenna, an eighth-generation EPYC […]
Google has begun introducing a unified naming system for cyber threat actors, replacing overlapping labels used by its security teams with two-word cryptonyms designed to give defenders clearer context about attackers and their likely objectives. The Google Threat Intelligence Group, known as GTIG, said the taxonomy would standardise threat tracking across its platforms and public reporting. The change follows the integration of Mandiant and Google’s Threat Analysis […]
Houthi forces launched missiles and drones at Saudi oil facilities on the Red Sea coast as the United States halted its bombing of Iran after 13 consecutive nights, opening a narrow diplomatic pause while the regional conflict spread towards a second vital shipping corridor. The Yemen-based group said Saturday’s coordinated operation targeted Saudi Aramco installations in Jizan, close to the Yemeni border, and Yanbu, the kingdom’s principal […]
Matein Khalid As Centcom continues its nightly blitz on Iran, the so-called 60-day ceasefire has effectively ended. In truth, the fire never ceased. If Count Tolstoy lived in 2026, his magnum opus might well be renamed… War or Peace? Again. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) generals will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz while sanctions relief on Kharg Island oil sales remains a big ask. They know US […]
Nearly 200 US startups have urged the Trump administration to reject sweeping restrictions on Chinese open-weight artificial intelligence models, warning that a broad ban would raise costs, weaken competition and threaten companies built around affordable access to advanced technology. The coordinated appeal was organised by the newly formed Little Tech Association and sent to President Donald Trump and senior administration officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and […]
Ransomware attacks on universities rose during the first half of 2026 as a fast-expanding cybercrime operation called The Gentlemen intensified its focus on higher education institutions across several continents. Higher education attacks increased by more than 8% compared with the second half of 2025, even as ransomware incidents across the broader education sector fell by 13%. Researchers recorded 104 attacks on schools, colleges and universities worldwide between […]
The United States has imposed a 25% tariff on a broad range of Brazilian goods, escalating a dispute over digital payments, market access, intellectual property protection and environmental policy. The duties took effect on July 22 following a year-long investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The measure covers products including farm machinery, footwear, textiles, wood products, chemicals and ethanol, while excluding several imports […]
Google has launched a selfie video sign-in option that allows eligible users to regain access to locked accounts by matching a live facial recording with one stored earlier. The feature is designed for situations where people have forgotten passwords, lost a device or cannot use their usual two-factor authentication method. It adds facial verification to Google’s existing recovery choices, which include registered telephone numbers, recovery email addresses, […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Bahrain and Kuwait carried out covert airstrikes against military facilities inside Iran in early July, marking their first known direct offensive action against Tehran during the widening regional war. The operation targeted storage sites holding missiles and attack drones, along with other military installations linked to Iran’s capacity to strike Gulf countries. The United Arab Emirates supplied intelligence on potential targets and provided […]
By Nitya Chakraborty India is hosting the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on September 12 and 13 this year which carries unusual significance in the present changing landscape of the geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific as also in other parts of the world. Most importantly, Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Russian President Vladimir Putin […]
The article Narendra Modi Has A Golden Opportunity To Lead Global South At BRICS Summit appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).
Hackers have hijacked GitHub Actions workflows across compromised repositories to create a distributed attack network targeting cPanel and WebHost Manager servers, exposing credentials, databases and cloud accounts. The campaign uses GitHub-hosted computing systems as disposable machines for scanning the internet, exploiting vulnerable hosting platforms and transmitting stolen information to attacker-controlled infrastructure. Security researchers linked the activity to malicious workflow files planted in thousands of repositories. The investigation […]
Hackers are using a legitimate copy of Notepad++ and a disguised plugin to install malware on Windows computers, allowing malicious code to run through the text editor’s normal extension-loading process. The campaign has been linked to UAC-0099, a threat cluster known for targeting government bodies, defence organisations and strategically important enterprises in Ukraine. The revised infection chain, detected from mid-July, deploys two newly identified tools called LUNCHPOKE […]
Two-thirds of large organisations have delayed or cancelled Microsoft 365 Copilot deployments amid fears that the artificial intelligence assistant could expose confidential information stored across poorly governed corporate systems. A survey of 279 enterprise technology, security, infrastructure and compliance leaders found that 66% had paused or abandoned rollout plans because of concerns over data that Copilot could retrieve through SharePoint. Nearly three-quarters, or 73%, feared AI tools […]
September-loading cargoes of ESPO Blend, Russia’s flagship Far Eastern crude grade, have attracted brisk demand from state-owned and independent refiners despite shrinking discounts. Buyers that would normally enter the market closer to loading dates are moving early to lock in supplies and reduce exposure to possible shipping delays across the Gulf and Red Sea.
ESPO cargoes delivered to China are being offered at discounts of roughly $1 to $3 a barrel against benchmark Brent prices. That compares with discounts near $4 for some August supplies, indicating that demand has strengthened even as the crude becomes less attractive on price.
The buying surge reflects growing concern over the reliability of Middle Eastern flows. Disruption around the Strait of Hormuz, combined with threats to shipping near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, has complicated routes used by Gulf producers to reach Asian customers.
Saudi Arabia has relied more heavily on its East-West pipeline to move crude from production centres near the Gulf to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. That option reduces dependence on Hormuz but leaves shipments exposed to security risks near Yemen and the southern entrance to the Red Sea.
China, the world’s largest crude importer, depends heavily on Middle Eastern producers. Russia offers an alternative supply line that avoids both maritime chokepoints. ESPO is particularly valuable because cargoes are shipped from Kozmino, near the Pacific coast, and can reach northern Chinese ports within days.
The short voyage lowers freight costs, reduces transit risk and gives refiners greater flexibility than crude shipped from the Gulf, Atlantic Basin or western Russian ports. ESPO is also a light, low-sulphur grade that produces relatively high volumes of petrol and diesel, making it suitable for many Chinese refining configurations.
Russia’s seaborne deliveries to China have increasingly centred on Far Eastern supply. ESPO represented about 62 per cent of China’s seaborne Russian crude imports in June, while overall Russian seaborne volumes rose by nearly 9 per cent from the previous month.
Purchases are being supported by competition from buyers elsewhere in Asia. Strong demand from India has helped prevent Russian exporters from offering the wide discounts seen earlier in the year. ESPO cargoes had traded as much as $9 to $10 below Brent for some February loadings before the market tightened.
The latest deals show how geopolitical risk can outweigh concerns surrounding sanctions and payment arrangements. Western measures against Russia have forced traders to rely on alternative shipping, insurance and financial networks, but established routes between Kozmino and China have continued to operate.
Chinese refiners are also examining fresh purchases of Iranian crude, which remains heavily discounted because of sanctions and transport risks. Independent processors concentrated in Shandong province have held talks over Pars and Iran Light cargoes as sellers seek buyers for barrels already moving towards Asia or held in floating storage.
Iranian grades have become cheaper relative to ESPO, although refiners must weigh the discount against possible delays, tanker availability and tighter enforcement. High international prices also restrict the amount smaller plants can purchase, particularly when domestic fuel demand and refining margins are uncertain.
Several independent refiners bought about 20 million barrels of crude from Iraq, the UAE and Qatar for July and August loading when Middle Eastern supplies briefly became cheaper. Some companies are now exploring the resale of those cargoes at higher prices to refiners in Taiwan and South Korea as regional availability tightens.
That shift illustrates the speed with which China’s private refining sector responds to changes in freight, sanctions and physical supply. The plants, often described as teapot refiners, can switch among Russian, Iranian and non-sanctioned Middle Eastern grades depending on margins and import quotas.
Two China-linked supertankers carrying about four million barrels of Saudi crude have exited the Red Sea through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, defying threats against vessels connected to the kingdom’s oil trade. The Xin Long Yang and Cosnew Lake completed the passage on Thursday after sailing south along Yemen’s coast. Their movement provided an important test of whether Saudi Arabia can continue using its Red Sea export route […]
Hackers exploited Wanchain’s bridge connecting Cardano and BNB Chain, draining about 515 million NIGHT tokens valued at roughly $9 million and forcing the affected cross-chain route to suspend operations. The attack targeted infrastructure operated by Wanchain rather than the Cardano or Midnight blockchains. Midnight Foundation said its network, validators and consensus system remained secure, seeking to contain concern that the breach had compromised the underlying privacy-focused protocol. […]
